Tête, épaules, genoux, pieds...

After a good sing-song and boogie with our usual tunes this morning, we sang our new song Tête, épaules, genoux, pieds... (Head, shoulders, knees and toes) with the actions, first in English and then in French.

This song, as well as being lots of fun, has the added benefit of being a great way to introduce body parts in both English and French and the little ones were all eager to join in with the actions and have a go at singing in French too.

The lyrics if you would like to have a go at singing this at home with your little one are as follows:

Tête, épaules, genoux, pieds, genoux, pieds,

Tête, épaules, genoux, pieds, genoux, pieds,

La bouche, le nez, les yeux et les oreilles,

Tête, épaules, genoux, pieds, genoux, pieds.

*Note the difference on the third line, the order in French is mouth, nose, eyes and ears*

To carry on the body theme, our craft activity today involved creating a little person.  Each child had a body template as a starting point and free choice from the craft materials to be as creative as they wanted with their person. 

Glue, tissue paper, felt, stickers, pom poms, glitter glue, craft sticks, cupcake cases, wool and ribbons were all used with great delight to produce some fantastic little people to take home and reinforce the vocabulary from the song.

What a fantastically creative bunch they are, I'm sure you'll agree!  :o)

les couleurs

You can use mega block type toys to introduce colours in French.

les couleurs:

bleu      rouge      vert         jaune         orange      violet       rose       marron        noir             blanc     

A brick in French is une brique (pronounced ‘breek’) and you can build towers using just the red bricks (les briques rouges) or the yellow bricks (les briques jaunes) etc. 

You can play with one brick of each colour and  build a tower in a particular order: bleu, rouge, vert, jaune, orange, etc. 

You can hide the bricks and then find them où est la brique rouge? (where is the red brick?).

 You can ask c’est de quelle couleur? (What colour is it?)  - C’est jaune (it’s yellow)

5 minutes of this within your normal building play and your little one will be soaking up the French vocabulary like a little sponge.  Even if they don’t yet speak English, you are helping to make your child more receptive to language learning by introducing different language sounds.  

All this from a simple toy that I bet you play with every day - and imagine how great you will feel when one day they start repeating the French back to you – Go on, give it a try, you’ll be amazed how quickly that happens!!

It's easier than you think to teach your little one French!

Have you considered teaching your little one another language but dismissed it as being too difficult and too expensive?  It is actually easier than you think - and you don't need to be fluent in a language yourself to start!
I'm sure you have plenty of toys and everyday activities that lend themselves to introducing a language.  Just by spending 5 or 10 minutes a day you would be amazed at how much a toddler can pick up.
Little Imp was 15 months old when I started running my toddler classes and prior to that I had not spoken any French to her at all.  Now only 4 months on she can say "Bonjour" and "Au revoir", asks for French versions of nursery rhymes as well as English ones "Baa Baa mou noir mama" (Baa Baa mouton noir mama) or "Baa Baa sheep mama" (Baa Baa black sheep mama) depending which one she wants to sing and can name several colours and fruits in both English and French.
My aim with this blog is to document the activities we do at our toddler group - songs and crafts that you can  do with your own little one at home - and also ideas for introducing a little taste of French into everyday life.
Thanks for reading and I hope that you enjoy learning some French along with us!
Emma and Little Imp :o)